Once, in a time when the world was made of water, there lived beautiful seabirds in shades from glowing whites to blazing pinks. They were good-natured and kind. Their leader, the Magical Mythical Ice Crane, was the most powerful and she was very protective of her flock.

In the earth there also lived serpent-like monsters that slithered all over the planet. Like savage dinosaurs, they would terrorize the seabirds. This made the Ice Crane very angry and she chose to freeze the world. With one swish of her wings, like a fish gliding through water, she skimmed the earth's surface. With a graceful touch of her snowy feathers, the earth became a floating ball of ice.

Awakened from his sleep by the freezing cold, Namazu the earthquake fish*, flew into a raging anger. With great effort he slapped his tail three long times. This caused the ice to crack and split and created "Ice Lands."

Now it happened that a great god named Fu-jii was watching this commotion. Fu-jii was an artistic but vain god and he thought, "What if I made creatures to occupy these Ice Lands and worship me?" He took some fallen feathers (from the Ice Crane) and using Origami*, folded them into things he called "People". He scattered the creatures on the ice lands and breathed over them slowly, warming the ice and turning the lands into stable ground and earth.

Fu-jii did not remember to consider what would happen to his new People and carelessly left them alone. The serpents (tired of the seabirds and not wanting to anger the Ice Crane again) jumped up onto the coasts and devoured the People. Then Fu-jii noticed a small group of islands far away from the serpents. He made more People and put them on those islands. The People found themselves in a place where rice was plenty and fish was, too.

But then another problem arose. In his sleep, Namazu flicked his tail again, which caused the sand to rush up to the surface and made a bridge for the serpents to cross. The weight of all the serpents rushing greedily over to Fu-jii's People made the bridge slowly sink to the middle of the earth.

Fu-jii wanted to make sure that the People were forever safe from these serpents. Using his mighty hands, he seized all the monsters and trapped them in the deepest caves of the ocean, never to come out again. The People then rejoiced and celebrated happily.

Epilogue

To this day the serpents live; in the deepest core of the ocean, cold, hungry and angry. Sometimes, if you listen to the waves of the ocean crashing onto the sand, you can still hear the serpents roaring in rage and pain.

* Namazu - a mythical earthquake fish in Japanese folklore
* Origami - Japanese art of folding paper